Overflow queues in Hosted ACD Systems

Call Centers are under constant pressure to handle increasing number of inbound calls with limited employees. Using Hosted ACD systems, agent status is monitored and calls are distributed in a more professional manner. The inbound calls are routed to the right call agent according to the caller’s requirement in a faster response and it fairly distributes the workload among call agents.

ACD system setup through a Hosted PBX system comes with the facility to setup overflow queues while the incoming call load really gets heavy. Hosted ACD systems enable you to assign an extra group of employees in your call center, in order to answer calls when the usual ACD queue gets too crowded. The overflow queue feature in the Hosted ACD systems are extremely helpful when callers have been on hold waiting for a call agent for a long time or a large number of callers are waiting in the queue. These settings can be customized to fit your needs.

In a conventional ACD system, incoming calls are routed and distributed on a first-call, first-answered basis. The system generally answers each call at once and where necessary, holds the call in queue until it can be directed to the available agent. The agent answers the first caller in the queue. With hosted ACD, it is possible to set values to overflow calls to another group of agents, if the incoming load is more than what a group can manage in a specified time.

In order to handle the calls in the most efficient manner, call center staffs maintain a multi tier support system. Operators in the first team may be assigned to take sales, services. The employees in the first tier will answer the calls if they have adequate information for the customer. If the customer needs more information about this, the call agent in the first tier will connect the callers to the appropriate department and provide general information on sales and services. Similarly, the second team operators may be assigned for technical support. The first employee in the desk receives the call and directs it to the second team comprised of skilled professionals and technical support staffs. The calls are transferred to other employees only if there is a problem that the first tier cannot solve or if the queue becomes full.

For an instance, let A and B be the queues for technical support. The first tier would log into technical support queue A; if an engineers support is required to solve the customers problem, the agent in queue A could transfer the caller to queue B where the engineers would all be logged in. Queue B could be a simple overflow queue operated by employees doing other jobs who only attend technical support calls when queue A is full, that are when all agents logged in are already engaged in a call. Callers waiting in the ACD queue will be directed to the call operator and a voicemail before it overflows.

In the case of sales or service queues, suppose the number of callers who are permitted to wait is set at zero. If the first queue for sales and service is full, that means all employees are engaged with calls, the next sales call overflows to the second overflow queue. This can be operated by employees who are appointed to perform other tasks but are trained to handle sales/service calls if required.

When both the first and second overflow queue are full, sales/service calls can overflow to the third queue which can be operated by off-duty employees. These employees can operate the tasks from their home by logging into the third overflow queue by means of their residence phone as their default number. With the overflow queues, a call center can answer all customer calls in real time without hiring excessive staffs.


This article has been published by AccessDirect, providers of Hosted PBX phone System featuring Automatic Caller Distribution (ACD system), Auto Attendant, Voice Mail, email fax service, follow me call forwarding, answering service, virtual receptionist, and business voicemail. We also provide virtual phone numbers, local numbers, toll free 800 numbers, New York 212 numbers, and Virtual Los Angeles numbers. Visit us at www.messagingservice.com.